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Go to the
opening page of Patricia's "Musings"
Read more about Marc-Antoine Charpentier
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Choose a different year in the "French" Cahiers
"French" cahiers for 1677
The colors on this table show how the principal focuses of the Guise music
— the royal family, the
Infant Jesus, the
Virgin and St
Genevieve, patronness of fevers and the
conversion of Huguenots — had coalesced
by 1677. The Guise ensemble of these years, which emerged in 1676, is firmly
in place now: 3 singers (a haut dessus, a dessus, and a bass)
plus 2 treble instruments, which I highlight in bold type, to call
attention to this ensemble. We also see Charpentier busily constituting a
corpus of polyvalent works for this ensemble that are suitable for performance
at the different venues of Their Highnesses, throughout the liturgical year.
Something unusual does occur during 1677: the "hd, d and b" are briefly joined
by an ensemble with an haute-contre (hc), doubtlessly Charpentier.
And this happens during the months when Du Bois is ill ! It's as if
Du Bois didn't care to have Charpentier sing with the ensemble, and as if
Charpentier seized this opportunity to have some fun. I'm showing the
hc in red.
How to explain the presence of music for the Abbaye-aux-Bois in a
"French" notebook? And several years before the famous tenebrae services?
First of all, we know that the sister of Etienne Loulié, one
of the Guise musicians, was a nun there, so that may be explanation enough.
But we also know that the coadjutrice of the abbey (since the abbess was
by then senile, the coadjutrice was de facto abbess) was the sister
of the Duke of Chaulnes who had been ambassador to Rome while Charpentier
was there — and to whose theatrical-operatic ventures I believe Charpentier
contributed. In other words, this music could be a sort of belated "thank-you"
to the Chaulnes family. Finally, we know that Mme de Guise and Mme de Montmartre
were acquainted with the abbess and coadjutrice: in Dec. 1670, they all
participated in an event at the Filles-Dieu (Gazette, 1671, p. 22)
Date |
Work |
Performers |
|
cahier 13, continued |
|
| January 1 |
H 316 In circumcisione Domini
for the Feast of the Circumcision, one of the Infant
Jesus's principal high holy days |
hd d b 2 tr |
| January 3 |
H 317 Pour le jour de Sainte Geneviève
"motet pour le jour de Ste
Geneviève" (that is, St-Genevieve
of the Ardent, to whom Mme de
Guise would turn when she was feverish |
hd d b 2 tr |
|
cahier 14 |
|
| January 6 |
H 395 Pour la fête de
l'Epiphanie
for Epiphany, one of the feasts of the Infant
Jesus |
hd d b 2 tr |
| February 2 |
H 318 In festo purificationis
"motet pour la Chandeleur." The text is inspired by the liturgy of
the vespers and matins of the feast of the
Purification. |
hd d b 2 tr |
| March 8 |
H 164 Prière pour le
roi
matins for Sunday and for several high holidays. (According to the
Mémoire of 1727, this was followed by a Dominum salvum fac
regem.) |
hd d b 2 tr |
|
cahier 15 |
|
| March 15 |
H 165 Precatio pro rege
Sunday matins |
hd d b 2 tr |
| March 3-25 |
H 166 Precatio pro filio
regis |
hd d b 2 tr |
|
cahier 16 |
|
|
H 58 Pange lingua |
hc t b 2 tr |
| winter |
H 21 Alma redemptoris Mater
daily lauds or complins, complins of
Virgin, from Advent to Feb. 3. (The allusion
to haute-contres was added later.) |
2 hd |
| Lent |
H 22 Ave Regina cœlorum
daily laudes or complins, complins of
Virgin, from Feb. 4 to Holy Saturday |
2 hd |
|
H 23 Salve Regina à 3 voix pareilles
daily complins or matins, complins of
Virgin |
hc t b |
| June 13 |
H 319 Motet pour la Trinité
(there was an annual mass that day founded by Marthe Croyer, a
cousin of Charpentier's, at the
Mercy) |
hd hc b |
|
H 59 Gaudia Virginis Mariæ
"motet pour la Vierge." One of the seven "Gauds" of the
Virgin |
3 hd |
|
cahier 17 |
|
|
H 24 Salve Regina à 3 chœurs
daily complins or matins, complins of
Virgin, Feb. 4 to Holy Saturday |
large ensemble |
| August 25 |
H 320 Motet de Saint Louis |
hc 2 tr |
| August 17 |
H 321 Motet de Saint Laurent
the feast of the patron saint of the
Mercy |
hc 2 tr |
| early Sept.? |
H 239 O sacrum à trois
for Corpus Christi, but also sung at Saint-Jean-en-Grève at the
salut service founded by Henriette-Catherine de Joyeuse,
Mlle de Guise's mother. (Is the "hc"
Charpentier? I think not. It's probably a nun with a very low voice, as below.) |
2 hd hc |
|
cahiers 17 and 18 |
|
| September 30- early October |
H 396 Historia Esther |
large ensemble |
|
H 287 Domine salvum fac regem |
hc t b 2 tr |
|
cahier 19 |
|
|
H 288 Domine salvum pour trois religieuses |
2 hd hc |
|
H 322 Motet de la Vierge pour toutes ses festes pour les mesmes
religieuses
for "Mère Camille," "Mère Sainte Cécile," and "Mère
Denos/Dhenault," nuns at the Abbaye-aux-Bois. |
2 hd hc |
| November 22 |
H 397 Cæcilia Virgo et Martyr octo vocibus
"Dialogue ... avec grande symphonie, le tout en latin" and once again
about conversion |
large ensemble |
|
